JP2014502072A - Surveillance video router - Google Patents

Abstract

  A surveillance video router routes the digital video stream to the video receiving device. The surveillance video router is coupled to the packet-switched network, enables communication with the video receiving device, and receives each digital video stream captured by the remote surveillance camera. The surveillance video router receives the request to route the first digital video stream generated by the first remote surveillance camera to the first video receiving device, and then routes the first digital video stream over the packet switched network. Route to the first video receiving device.

Description

  This US patent application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety and is part of this US utility patent application for all purposes, and is a pending US provisional application named “Surveyance Video Router”. No. 61 / 405,698 claiming priority according to 35 USC 119 (e).

  The present invention relates generally to video surveillance systems, and in particular to viewing digital video streams from video surveillance cameras.

  Video surveillance systems that use camera streaming standards and high definition video over IP networks for digital recorders, video analysis systems, video management displays, and other viewing devices / systems are becoming popular in the market. Camera network systems can be found at airports, city streets, transportation, public shopping malls, retail chain, and other places. The functioning of such a system improves the protection of people, assets and property. Currently, small, medium, and large camera networks exist with multiple monitors located remotely somewhere on locally connected or wide area networks.

  In a typical existing video surveillance system, each surveillance person selects which camera (s) should be viewed. For example, a human supervisor who manually uses a PC-based video management system (VMS) selects one or more cameras from a table, list, or map. After interacting properly with the VMS graphical user interface, the human observer views the real-time video stream from the selected camera.

  In IP cameras, an HTTP-based streaming protocol is typically used so that a monitor entering the appropriate URL can view the real-time video stream with a browser client. For example, the supervisor can enter the URL manually or after receiving the URL in a text message or email triggered by an alarm condition. However, the observer must connect directly to the URL and therefore have knowledge of the URL to access the video stream.

  In many scenarios, it is impossible or impractical for a human observer to manually select a camera to view. For example, consider a situation where a police officer is driving a police car to an emergency site where a video surveillance camera is installed. Watching real-time video from one or more surveillance cameras while a police officer is traveling to an emergency site should be extremely useful, but manual interaction with a PC screen by a police officer is probably dangerous while driving at high speed It is. In addition, police officers typically do not know which camera (s) are most appropriately selected for viewing. This information may be better known to the commander of the city's central emergency network operating center, which has access to video walls showing many / all cameras, as well as other resources and assets. Such a third party commander may be in the best position to select which video stream should be pushed / routed to the police, but currently the third party selects the video stream. There is no mechanism to make this possible.

  Accordingly, there is a need for a surveillance video router that can route IP-based digital video streams to a supervisor and that can be controlled by a third party to route the appropriate digital video stream to the supervisor.

  In one embodiment, the surveillance video router routes the digital video stream to the video receiving device. The surveillance video router is coupled to a packet-switched network and includes a network interface that is capable of communicating with a video receiving device and that receives each digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera. The surveillance video router further includes a processor that receives a request to route the first digital video stream generated by the first remote surveillance camera to the first video receiving device via the network interface. The processor further routes the first digital video stream to the first video receiving device via the network interface.

  In the exemplary embodiment, the request is received from a first video receiving device. In another exemplary embodiment, the request is received as a control input from a third party source.

  In another embodiment, the surveillance video router includes a plurality of logical source ports that each receive one of the digital video streams and a plurality of logical destination ports that each communicate with at least one of the video receiving devices. . The processor copies the first digital video stream from each of the logical source ports for the first digital video stream to each of the logical destination ports for the first video receiving device, to the first video receiving device. Route the first digital video stream.

  In another embodiment of the present invention, a method for routing a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a video receiving device is provided. The method includes receiving, via a packet switched network, a request to route a first digital video stream generated by a first remote surveillance camera to a first video receiving device of a surveillance video router; Receiving a first digital video stream from a first remote surveillance camera of the surveillance video router via the, and routing the first digital video stream to the first video receiving device by the surveillance video router.

  A more complete understanding of the present invention can be obtained by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

1 illustrates an exemplary digital video system including a surveillance video router that routes a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a video receiving device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary digital video system including a surveillance video router that routes a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a display device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary digital video system including a surveillance video router that routes a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to another type of video receiving device, according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 6 illustrates various routing mechanisms for routing a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a plurality of video receiving devices according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 illustrates various routing mechanisms for routing a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a plurality of video receiving devices according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary transcoding mechanism for transcoding a digital video stream before routing to one or more video receiving devices according to an embodiment of the invention. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary smart video router that implements third party control of digital video stream routing, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating various components of a surveillance video router according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary routing of digital video streams across different packet switched networks according to embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary routing of digital video streams across different packet switched networks according to embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2 illustrates a cascaded video router that routes digital video streams according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates an IP tunneling mechanism for routing digital video streams according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary method for routing a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a video receiving device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

  In accordance with embodiments of the present invention, a surveillance video router is provided that acts as a network infrastructure element that controls the exchange / routing of video streams from IP-based surveillance cameras to video receiving devices. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary digital video system 10 that routes a digital video stream captured by a remote video surveillance camera 40 to one or more video receiving devices 50 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The system 10 includes a remote video surveillance camera (camera-1, camera-2 ... camera-N) 40, a video receiving device (VRD1, VRD2 .... VRD M) 50, and a surveillance video router (SVR) 20. including. By way of example and not limitation, video receiving device 50 may be a video management system (VMS), a networked video recorder, a video analysis system, an additional surveillance video router, a browser, or a display device. Examples of display devices include devices having a single display, such as mobile communication devices, personal computers, laptop computers, security system display devices, or devices having multiple displays, such as a security system video wall.

  SVR 20, camera 40, and video receiving device (VRD) 50 communicate through a packet switched network 30, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) network or other types of networks. Thus, the SVR 20 uses logical processing rather than the complex physical electronic circuitry required in conventional circuit switched networks, thereby providing superior scalability, overcoming cable distance limitations, and non-tethered ( Wireless) Access to IP-based mobile devices. In addition, the logic processing in packet-switched SVR 20 facilitates the introduction of new features, functions, and upgrades that cannot be simply implemented using fixed electronics found in conventional circuit-switched video routers. Turn into.

  The SVR 20 routes the digital video stream captured by the remote video surveillance camera 40 to one or more of the VRDs 50 in real time. Specifically, the SVR 20 routes the digital video stream to the VRD 50 when requested. The request can be initiated via the control interface 80 by the VRD 50 or an external third party source.

  For example, in one embodiment, the VRD 50 may establish a respective signaling connection 70 with the SVR 20 and request to receive the digital video stream (s) 60 from one or more cameras 40. . Further, the SVR 20 can set up a separate media session 75 with one or more cameras 40 to receive media (digital video stream) 60 from the cameras 40. The SVR 20 can establish a media session 75 with the camera 40 before or as a result of receiving the request. In any case, upon receipt of the request, the SVR 20 routes the requested video media 60 from the camera 40 to the VRD 50. In practice, the surveillance video router 20 acts as a proxy between the camera 40 and the VRD 50.

  In another embodiment, the SVR 20 receives a request from a third party source via the control interface 80 and applies the digital video stream (s) 60 from one or more cameras 40 to one or more VRDs 50. Can be routed to. In this embodiment, the SVR 20 can also establish a signaling connection with the camera 20 and route the requested digital video stream 60 to the appropriate VRD 50 before or as a result of receiving the request. .

  The SVR 20 can implement both the unicast IP distribution method and the multicast IP distribution. For example, some cameras 40 can be exchanged / routed using unicast while other cameras are exchanged / routed using multicast to distribute the digital video stream 60 to multiple VRDs 50. can do. In another embodiment, the SVR 20 may receive a multicast stream and route the multicast stream to one or more VRDs 50 as a unicast stream or a multicast stream.

  Referring now to FIG. 2, an exemplary system 10 for routing a digital video stream from a camera 40 to a VRD display device 55 via an SVR 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Although FIG. 2 is described with respect to routing a video stream to a display device, it should be understood that the following applies equally to other types of VRDs.

  As described above, the display device 55 (eg, Display Device 1, Display Device 2 .... Display Device M) is a single display such as a mobile communication device, personal computer, laptop computer, security system display device, etc. Or a device with multiple displays, such as a security system video wall. Each display device 55 can be operated by a monitor viewing one or more digital video streams 60 from one or more cameras 40.

  In an exemplary embodiment, for a monitor of a particular display device 55 (eg, Display Device 2) to view a digital video stream from a particular camera (eg, Camera-N), Display Device 2 is appropriate A video session is set up with the SVR 20 using the unique Session Setup signaling 70. As shown in FIG. 2, the display device 55 is connected to various logical transmission control protocol (TCP) ports, referred to herein as destination ports 28 (eg, Destination Port A, Destination Port B ... Destination Port Y). You can contact SVR20 above. For example, the display device 2 can issue a session setup signaling HTTP (Session Setup Signaling HTTP) request to the destination port Y of the IP address of the SVR. The Session Setup Signaling request can include, for example, the URL of the camera that the display device 50 wants to view its digital video stream 60.

  Similarly, the SVR 20 initiates video sessions with the camera 40 over various logical TCP ports, referred to herein as source ports 25 (eg, Source Port a, Source Port b ... Source Port x). To do. For example, the SVR 20 can issue a session setup signaling HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request to Camera-1 from the SVR IP address and a specific source port (eg, Source Port x), and the SVR IP address and Source. A session setup signaling HTTP request can be issued from Port b to Camera-N. Media 60 is returned to the SVR from each camera (Camera-1 and Camera-N) in the HTTP response.

  In one embodiment, SVR 20 initiates a session with all cameras 40 on the list, regardless of which session is requested by the VRD (eg, display device 55). In this way, some or all cameras 40 are always streaming to the SVR 20 regardless of whether they are actually exchanged / routed to any display device 55. In another embodiment, a request from a VRD arriving at a particular SVR destination port triggers the setup of one or more sessions for one or more cameras 40 by the SVR 20. In yet another embodiment, the SVR 20 sets up a session with the camera 40 via the SVR control interface 80. In this embodiment, an external application (third party source) controls the SVR 20 and instructs the SVR 20 as to when and which camera 40 stream should be set up.

  In order to route the digital video stream to the appropriate display device 55, the SVR 20 internally copies the media 60 received on the source port to the destination port. For example, the SVR 20 can copy the media 60 received on the Source Port b to the Destination Port Y, and routes the digital video stream from the Camera-N to the Display Device 2. For example, the digital video stream 60 can be included in an HTTP response from the SVR 20. For example, the digital video stream 60 may be used as a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) with Real Time Protocol (RTP) packets or a series of Motion Joint Photographic Experts groups (Motion Joint Photographic Experts). Group: MJPEG) frames can be sent.

  Note that multiple digital video streams 60 to / from / in SVR 20 can exist in parallel, but only a few such streams are shown in FIG. 2 for simplicity of discussion. I want to be. For example, a typical SVR 20 can have tens, hundreds, or even thousands of digital video streams 60 being exchanged / routed simultaneously. The terms "IP source port" and "IP destination port destination port" are exemplary only and many other types of logic using various stream identification mechanisms such as tuples, source / destination IDs, etc. Note also that implementation is possible.

  Referring now to FIG. 3, VRDs are of various types such as display windows in multiple video management systems 90 from various vendors, network video recorders 95, browsers, video analysis systems, other similar video clients, and the like. It can be seen that video surveillance clients can also be included. Further, as can also be seen from FIG. 3, instead of initiating a session with the actual camera, the video receiving device (ie, VMS 90 or recorder 95) initiates a session with SVR 20. In essence, the SVR 20 acts as a bank of virtual cameras. The VRD is completely unaware that the VRD is related to a video session with a virtual camera, not a real camera. Furthermore, each camera 40 is completely unaware that each camera 40 is involved in a video session with the SVR 20 rather than the actual VRD. Thus, SVR 20 acts as a “middleman” server, proxying media and signaling between multiple types of cameras 40 and VRD 90/95.

  Different VRDs 90/95 may set up sessions with the SVR 20 using different session setup signaling protocols. For example, a VMS manufactured by vendor 1 may use one type of session setup signaling protocol and syntax, whereas a VMS manufactured by vendor 2 may use another type of session setup signaling protocol and syntax. May be used. The SVR 20 can handle such protocol and syntax variations.

  In one embodiment, the SVR 20 uses information in the setup request 70 from a particular VRD 90/95, such as URL format, requesting IP address, and / or other information, to determine the type of session setup signaling protocol. Is derived adaptively. In another embodiment, the SVR 20 supports a specific type of session setup signaling protocol on a specific destination port. For example, destination port 1000-1999 can be reserved for communication from VMS 90 of vendor 1, destination port 2000-2999 can be reserved for communication from VMS 90 of vendor 2, and a network video recorder Destination ports 11000-11049 can be reserved for contact from 95. When the complete system is assembled, installed, and configured, the VRD 90/95 and SVR 20 are properly managed according to the configuration.

  The SVR 20 can also handle camera dependent session setup signaling protocols. For example, SVR 20 can issue one type of session setup signaling protocol for cameras manufactured by vendor 1 and another type of session setup signaling protocol for cameras manufactured by vendor 2. Can be issued. In one embodiment, the SVR 20 can set up camera dependent signaling according to the list (ie, IP Addr1's Camera-1 is set up with a vendor's session setup signaling protocol, and IP Addr2's Camera-2 is set up separately. Vendor's session setup signaling protocol, and so on). In another embodiment, the Source Port is associated with a camera type. In this embodiment, when the SVR 20 is instructed to start up a session using Source Port x, the SVR 20 uses the camera specific vendor protocol Y.

  In yet another embodiment, the SVR 20 uses the SVR control interface 80 to set up a camera-specific session setup signaling protocol. For example, an API control command can be sent to the SVR 20 that instructs the SVR 20 to set up a session with the camera's IP address using a specific vendor's camera protocol.

  In the exemplary embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the networked video recorder 95 uses a suitable Session Setup signaling 70 to connect a video session with a particular destination port 28 (eg, Destination Port Y) of the SVR 20. Set up. Similarly, SVR 20 initiates a video session with Camera-N on a particular source port 25 (eg, Source Port b) using the appropriate Session Setup signaling 75. Thereafter, the SVR 20 internally copies the media 60 received on the Source Port b to the Destination Port Y, and appropriately routes the digital video stream from the Camera-N to the network type video recorder 95.

  As part of the exchange / routing process, SVR 20 may also perform “fan-out” or “one-to-many” distribution of streams. One embodiment of “fanout” is shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, multiple video receiving devices 50 (eg, VRD1 and VRD2) are connected to the same SVR destination port 28 (eg, Destination Port B). For example, when SVR 20 is instructed to copy media from a source port (eg, Source Port b) to Destination Port B via a control input from control interface 80, VRD1 and VRD2 receive the same modified stream. to see. For example, as can be seen from FIG. 4, at a particular point in time, VRDs 1 and 2 both receive a digital video stream 60 from Camera-1, whereas at different times (not shown), VRDs 1 and 2 Both can receive digital video streams from different cameras.

  In another embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, video 60 from the camera is copied or fanned out to multiple destination ports. Thus, two VRDs can receive digital video streams from the same camera at one time and from two different cameras at another time. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, VRD1 is connected to Destination Port B, and VRD2 is connected to Destination Port Y. In the SVR 20, the digital video stream 60 from the Camera-1 received at the Source Port b is copied to both the Destination Port B and the Destination Port Y, and both the VRD1 and the VRD2 may receive the Stream of the Camera-1. Configured to be possible.

  The SVR 20 can also be integrated with a camera 40 that supports multiple simultaneous connections. Thus, in yet another “fan-out” embodiment, Source Port x can connect to Camera-1, and Source Port b can also connect to Camera-1. These two source ports 25 (Source Port x and Source Port b) can then be appropriately copied to the SVR destination port 28 as needed.

  FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary transcoding mechanism for transcoding a digital video stream 60 before routing to one or more video receiving devices 50 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Instead of simply moving or copying each packet, the SVR 20 can perform signal processing to transcode the video stream 60 to a different compression scheme. Many cameras and video receiving devices have the ability to encode and decode video media streams using different schemes such as H264, MPEG-4, MJPEG. The SVR 20 can change the encoding of the stream as the stream traverses the SVR 20, and then the transcoded stream can be routed to one or more video receiving devices 90/98.

  In the exemplary embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, VMS window 90 and video analysis system 98 may both have requested to view the same camera 40 (eg, Camera-1). Due to network bandwidth, camera-SVR and SVR-VRD communications are bandwidth efficient H.264 for inter-frame coding. It may be convenient to use H.264 encoding. However, the video analysis system 98 may prefer to encode the digital video stream using MJPEG encoding. For example, MJPEG frames can be conveniently signaled by video analysis system 98 because MJPEG uses intraframe coding and each frame contains the entire image. Therefore, the SVR 20 moves the H.264 from the Camera-1 to the VMS window 90. H.264 digital video stream 60 is routed to maintain a small bandwidth between Camera-1 and VMS window 90, while at the same time The H.264 stream is transcoded into MJPEG frames and the MJPEG media 65 is routed to the video analysis system 98. Therefore, by implementing transcoding within the SVR 20, it is possible to optimally match the communication between the camera 40 and the 90/98 of the VRD.

  Referring now to FIG. 7, an exemplary smart video router 200 that implements third party control of digital video stream routing according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. The smart video router 200 includes an SVR 20 and a rule-based engine 210 that implement intelligent automatic or semi-automatic (eg, human assisted) exchange / routing. The rule base engine 210 is a third party source that provides control input to the SVR 20 via the control interface 80. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, the control input can instruct the SVR 20 to route the digital video stream 60 from Camera-N to VRD-2.

  In the exemplary embodiment, rule-based engine 210 is a video analysis system that can automatically track a particular vehicle or person of interest as it moves across a wide field of cameras on a camera network. To allow public security officers to view the vehicle or person in a single window on a VMS display (eg, on VRD-2) with automatic selection rather than manual selection of the camera The video analysis system 210 can dynamically select which of the various video streams is best routed to the public security officer display (VRD-2).

  It should be understood that the control interface 80 for the SVR 20 has many sets of extensions and variants. For example, multiple third party sources may be able to access the SVR control interface (s) 80 having various roles. One third party source may be able to exchange / route a subset of cameras or VRDs, and another third party source may be able to exchange / route another subset of cameras or VRDs Can be.

  Along with different types of authentication, control can be allowed according to different policies. For example, one third party source that authenticates at a higher level may be able to override, disable, or modify the behavior of another third party source. In addition, different third party sources can connect to different network interfaces in various multi-port SVR configurations. In addition, the third party source may be able to set parameters for processing, transcoding, or session setup signaling. Third party sources can also be connected to various types of customized graphical user interfaces so that, for example, different drag and drop interfaces can determine the exchange / routing performed by the SVR.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram of an exemplary SVR 20 according to an embodiment of the invention. The SVR 20 includes a processor 100, a memory 110, and a network interface (I / F) 120. The network interface 120 is coupled to a packet switched (IP) network to communicate with remote video surveillance cameras and video receiving devices. Thus, as used herein, the term “network interface” refers to an interconnection point between the SVR 20 and a private or public packet switched network. The network interface is generally understood to be a network interface card (NIC), and the network interface 120 shown in FIG. 8 is understood to include one or more NICs each having its own separate IP address. However, in another embodiment, the SVR 20 may have more than one IP address on the same single NIC, so the SVR 20 uses multihoming to span different networks with the same NIC be able to.

  The memory 110 maintains a routing algorithm 130, and the processor 100 is further coupled to the memory 110 to execute the instructions of the routing algorithm 130. For example, the processor 100 may execute the instructions of the routing algorithm 130 to route a digital video stream received on a particular Source Port to one or more destination ports.

  As used herein, the term “processor” is generally understood to be a device that drives a general purpose computer such as a PC. However, to achieve the benefits and advantages described herein, other such as a microcontroller, field programmable gate array (FPGA), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), digital signal processing chip, or combinations thereof Note that a processing device can also be used. Further, as used herein, the term “memory” includes, but is not limited to, a hard drive, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), flash memory, or other type of storage device or storage medium. Including any type of data storage device.

  The memory 110 further maintains camera information 140. The camera information 140 includes, for example, an identifier for each camera (ie, a URL for each camera) and an indication of whether each camera is online and is currently transmitting a digital video stream. The camera information 140 can also include camera characteristics, camera position, camera protocol, and any other information associated with the camera. The memory 110 also maintains a distribution table 150 that maps which digital video stream is currently routed to which VRD 50. Distribution table 150 is updated by routing algorithm 130 when a new request is received from VRD or based on control input 170 received via network interface 120. The distribution table 150 can also be updated by the routing algorithm 130 when the VRD and / or camera goes offline.

  The memory 110 may further include a video processing algorithm 160 that can be executed by the processor 100. Examples of video processing algorithm 160 include, but are not limited to, contrast enhancement, background filtering, foreground filtering, megapixel camera zooming, tracking, multi-sensor fusion (multiple cameras sent to the same processing function), 3D processing, transcoding , And other types of video processing. The processor 100 may execute video processing algorithms for all digital video streams or only a part of the digital video streams. Furthermore, the routing algorithm 130 can use the processing results of the video processing algorithm to determine the exchange / routing to be performed for a particular digital video stream.

  In addition, some surveillance cameras have the ability to perform pan / tilt / zoom (PTZ) via network control. For example, the camera can be configured to accept HTTP-based URLs that are typically generated by a user interface on a VMS system. The processor 100 can be configured to properly proxy / relay pan / tilt / zoom (PTZ) signals received from the VRD to the camera. In yet another embodiment, the control input 170 can include a PTZ command to be sent back to the camera. For example, the network dispatch operator may use the GUI to control both the selection of cameras pushed / routed to the first responder, as well as the PTZ position of the cameras. The processor 100 may also implement a PTZ policy 180 stored in the memory 110 or an external database. For example, the processor 100 may return PTZ commands from some VRDs to some cameras and not return PTZ commands from other VRDs to the same camera or different cameras.

  Referring now to FIG. 9, as described above, the SVR 20 can have multiple IP addresses and / or multiple NIC cards, and therefore SVR exchange / routing can be performed across multiple heterogeneous networks. . FIG. 9 shows a system 10 having two NICs 120 (Eth-0 and Eth-1) with SVR 20 coupled to different network segments 30a and 30b, respectively. Media from the camera 40 (Camera-b1, Camera-b2 .... Camera-bN) is sent via the network segment 30a, and VRD 50 (VRD-B1, VRD-B2 .... VRD) via the network segment 30b. -BM). For example, as shown in FIG. 9, a digital video stream 60 from Camera-b2 is sent via Network Segment a and is received at Source Port b of NIC Eth-0 of SVR 20, where digital video stream 60 is Destination. Copied to Port A and routed to VRD-B1 via NIC Eth-1 and Network Segment b.

  In one embodiment, the 2-port SVR is a PC server that includes two NIC cards that run SVR software. In another embodiment, the 2-port SVR is a dedicated hardware device that runs embedded SVR firmware. In yet another embodiment, the two-port SVR is an IP-based data switch or router that implements the SVR function, thereby providing a supervisory operable data switch. It should be understood that there are many different possible architectures for the SVR 20, and only a few are described herein.

  An exemplary application of the two-port SVR 20 shown in FIG. 9 is a scenario where the camera 40 is on a private LAN 30a, the VRD 50 is at a remote location on the Internet 30b, and / or is behind a remote NAT and firewall over the Internet. It is. For simplicity, session setup signaling between the camera 40 and the Eth-0 NIC of the SVR 20 is not shown, and session setup signaling between the VRD 50 and the SVR 20 is not shown.

  As can be seen from FIG. 9, in addition to performing the various exchange operations described above, the two-port SVR 20 is connected between the Network Segment-a (eg, private LAN) and the Network Segment-b (eg, the Internet). Acts as a conduit or boundary control element. In this embodiment, the SVR 20 can perform NAT traversal and acts as a session boundary controller for digital video surveillance media.

  Note that depending on various embodiments and / or SVR management, control interfaces 80a and 80b for SVR 20 may be exposed on one, the other, or both network interfaces (Eth-0 and Eth-1). I want to be. The control interfaces 80a and 80b can also have various functions and roles depending on the network interface. For example, Control-0 can be used to set up and tear down a session with camera 40, whereas Control-1 can be used to control the copy, ie exchange / routing process. it can. As another example, Control-0 can allow copying of Source Port a-m, whereas Control-1 can allow copying of Source Port n-z.

  Although signaling is not shown in FIG. 9, in some embodiments, the signaling format used on each network segment 30a and 30b may be incompatible and thus SVR 20 as a signaling bridge between different network segments 30a and 30b. It should be understood that can also be used. For example, in one embodiment, the session initiation protocol that one side (eg, network segment b) signaling is typically found to be used in enterprise and carrier networks for voice and video communications and video conferencing. The signaling on the other side (eg, network segment a) may be HTTP or RTSP based, typically used in video surveillance systems, while it may be (SIP). The encoding of the actual video media itself is Although the same type of compression scheme such as H.264 is used, the session setup signaling format is completely incompatible. For example, a typical SIP-based video conferencing endpoint used for telepresence, corporate meetings, etc. (eg, one of the VRDs 50) cannot call a typical video surveillance camera. The SVR 20 performs signaling conversion and bridges the SIP-based communication client (VRD 50) with the monitoring camera 40.

  In an exemplary embodiment, the SIP video conferencing system can dial a video surveillance camera via SVR 20 or add another additional video surveillance camera via SVR 20 to an existing telepresence video conference. be able to. In another exemplary embodiment, the sensor event can trigger an SVR control command that causes the SVR to dial out to the SIP endpoint along with video media from one or more surveillance cameras. In yet another exemplary embodiment, the same telecommunications equipment used by the city authorities for the video conference meeting can also be used to view the city surveillance camera via the SVR 20, Will improve citizens' safety. In yet another exemplary embodiment, multiple government agencies can conduct a telecommunications-based video conference in one of the tiled video conference windows showing surveillance cameras appropriately exchanged by the SVR 20. Furthermore, in another embodiment, a set of existing and developing applications within an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) network can be fully utilized within a video surveillance context. Mobility, billing, voice / data application fields and services can be applied to multiple video surveillance networks. For example, a carrier using an IMS / SIP based telecommunications network can now provide security services for video surveillance using SVR 20.

  FIG. 10 shows generalization of the multi-port SVR 20. Again, each NIC 120 can have multiple multihomed IP addresses that connect to multiple networks, and in the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, each NIC 120 has its own separate and different IP address, respectively. Connected to separate packet switched networks 30. In FIG. 10, there are a plurality of camera LAN network segments (LAN segment a, LAN segment b... LAN segment z) and a plurality of VRD LAN network segments (LAN segment A, LAN segment B... LAN segment Z). Each camera LAN network segment 30 includes one or more video surveillance cameras. For example, the LAN segment a includes Camera-a1, Camera-a2. . . Camera-aN, and LAN segment b includes Camera-b1, Camera-b2,. . . Camera-bN, and LAN segment c includes Camera-c1, Camera-c2. . . Includes Camera-cN. Further, each camera LAN network segment 30 is coupled to a respective NIC 120 of the SVR 20. For example, LAN segment a is coupled to Eth-a, LAN segment b is coupled to Eth-b, and LAN segment z is coupled to Eth-z.

  Similarly, each VRD LAN network segment 30 includes one or more VRDs 50. For example, LAN segment A includes VRD-A1, VRD-A2. . . LAN segment B includes VRD-AM, VRD-B1, VRD-B2. . . LAN segment Z includes VRD-BM, VRD-Z1, VRD-Z2. . . Includes VRD-ZM. In addition, each VRD LAN network segment 30 is coupled to a respective NIC 120 of the SVR 120. For example, LAN segment A is coupled to Eth-A, LAN segment B is coupled to Eth-B, and LAN segment Z is coupled to Eth-Z.

  Media from each camera 40 is routed through the respective camera LAN network segment and routed to one or more VRDs 50 via the respective VRD network segment. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, a digital video stream 60 from Camera-bN is sent via LAN segment b and received by NIC Eth-b of SVR 20, where digital video stream 60 is sent to NIC Eth-A. Copied and routed to VRD-AM via LAN segment A. Furthermore, the digital video stream from Camera-bN is also copied to NIC Eth-Z and routed to VRD-Z2 via LAN segment Z.

  An exemplary application of the multi-port SVR 20 is a scenario where the camera 40 is on one or more private LANs and the various VRDs are at remote locations on one or more different LANs. For example, the multiport SVR 20 can be used with cameras in various terminals at an airport or transportation. One terminal can be associated with one LAN, another terminal can be associated with another LAN, and so on. Further, one VRD network may be a local airport security office, another VRD network may be a remote state police station, and yet another VRD network may be one or more remote TSA offices. Multiple VRD networks can view various cameras without having a direct connection between the VRD networks themselves. For example, local security and state security may view an airport camera, but local security and state security may not be able to connect each other's network.

  Further, similar to FIG. 9, depending on various embodiments and / or SVR management, the control interface 80 for SVR may be exposed on one, some, or all of the various network interfaces 120. it can. The control interface 80 can also have various functions and roles depending on the network interface 120. For example, Control-0 can be used to set up and tear down a session for camera 40 on one camera LAN segment, whereas Control-1 can be used to camera on another camera LAN segment. You can set up and tear down sessions. As another example, Control-1 can control the copy of Source Port a-m, while Control-Z can control the copy of Source Port n-z.

  Usually the camera is connected to one LAN segment and the VRD is connected to another different LAN segment, but in another embodiment the camera and VRD can be mixed on the same network segment. For example, the SVR 20 can be used to exchange / route a VRD local to the camera, and a camera local to the VRD can be exchanged / routed, i.e., source and destination ports on different network segments. Can be mixed with each other.

  Referring now to FIG. 11, a plurality of SVRs 20 (eg, SVR-1, SVR-2... SVR-X) can be cascaded together in various ways to address system requirements. In FIG. 11, each SVR 20 can be coupled to one or more packet switched networks 30, and the digital video stream 60 from the camera 40 can be routed to the VRD 50 by traversing multiple cascaded SVRs 20. . The “virtual camera” output of each SVR 20 serves as the “real camera” input for the next SVR. Thus, the input of SVR-2 can serve as a VRD for the output of SVR-1.

  Cascading SVRs 20 enables many different types of distributed system designs and architectures. As an example, instead of using one large central SVR, the system 10 can be broken down into various distributed SVRs. As a second example, a large video surveillance system can be designed hierarchically. Cascaded SVR also allows for the association of camera networks with fine-grained control over which cameras are viewed by which VRDs. Furthermore, cascaded SVR also facilitates efficient bandwidth usage when the stream from the camera needs to move and because the stream from the camera is exchanged / routed only at the location.

  In a cascaded SVR system, many video streams can potentially move from one SVR to another. However, if there is any intermediate network that includes NAT, firewall, data router, etc. in the middle of SVR, complex processes may be required to manage NAT traversal, port mapping, firewall pinhole opening, etc. For example, if 1000 virtual camera streams are moving from SVR-1 to SVR-2, this may require mapping 1000 ports in the management console of multiple network devices in the middle of SVR. This is prone to error during system installation and commissioning, which can be time consuming and costly.

  Thus, according to another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 12, the SVR 20 can implement a tunneling procedure. As can be seen from FIG. 12, only a single connection is established as tunnel 330, which facilitates media exchange and signaling between SVRs 20 across one or more intermediate networks 300. Multiple digital video streams 60 from multiple cameras 40 are encapsulated and tunneled by one SVR (eg, SVR-1) using the tunneling module 310 and by another SVR (eg, SVR-2). Decapsulation using tunneling detuning module 320 and detuning. In general, the tunnel 330 can be set up and established by any of a plurality of SVRs. For example, if SVR-1 is behind a NAT / firewall and SVR-2 is on the Internet, it may be more convenient for SVR-1 to establish a tunnel. This is because SVR-2 does not establish a tunnel for SVR-1, but instead a connection is automatically opened through the NAT / firewall, so that SVR-2 establishes a tunnel for SVR-1 This is because it is necessary to manually manage the firewall to open / permit incoming connections from the LAN to the LAN.

  In one embodiment, the tunnel 330 can be based on IPSEC, VPN, SSL / TLS, or other technologies. Such techniques can also be used with the SVR API control interface to select which of the streams will enter the tunnel and which will instead travel directly to one or more other SVRs.

  Note that SVR can support multiple tunnels simultaneously. For example, SVR-1 can support two tunnels, one is a tunnel for SVR-2 and the other is a tunnel for a different SVR, and SVR-2 has four tunnels for four other SVRs. to support. Each tunnel can be set up / established independently by either one SVR or the other SVR.

  FIG. 13 is a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary process 400 for routing a digital video stream captured by a remote surveillance camera to a video receiving device, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The process begins at block 410 where a request is received at a surveillance video router and a first digital video stream generated by a first remote surveillance camera is routed via a packet switched network to a first video receiving device. At block 420, a first digital video stream is received at a surveillance video router from a first remote surveillance camera over a packet switched network. Finally, at block 430, the first digital video stream is routed by the surveillance video router to the first video receiving device.

  Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the innovative concepts described herein can be modified, changed and adapted over a wide range of applications. Accordingly, the scope of patent subject matter is not limited to any of the specific exemplary teachings discussed, but is defined by the following claims.

Claims (10)

A surveillance video router for routing a digital video stream to a video receiving device,
A network interface coupled to the packet switched network, enabling communication with a video receiving device and receiving each digital video stream captured by the remote monitoring camera;
A processor for receiving a request to route a first digital video stream generated by a first remote surveillance camera to a first video receiving device via a network interface, wherein the first video is sent via the network interface. A surveillance video router comprising: a processor for further routing the first digital video stream to the receiving device. A plurality of logical source ports each receiving one of the digital video streams;
A plurality of logical destination ports each communicating with at least one of the video receiving devices;
A processor copies the first digital video stream from each of the logical source ports for the first digital video stream to each of the logical destination ports for the first video receiving device, to the first video receiving device. The surveillance video router of claim 1, wherein the surveillance video router routes the first digital video stream.   A processor receives a session setup signaling hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) request at a logical destination port for the first video receiving device and routes the first digital video stream to the first video receiving device within an HTTP response; The surveillance video router of claim 2, wherein the HTTP response comprises a Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) by Real Time Protocol (RTP) packet, or a series of Motion Joint Photographic Experts Group (MJPEG) frames.   The processor initiates a video session with the first remote surveillance camera by issuing a session setup signaling HTTP request from the internet protocol (IP) address of the surveillance video router and the logical source port of the first remote surveillance camera. Before receiving the request to route the first digital video stream to the first video receiving device, or to receive the first digital video stream from the first remote surveillance camera in an HTTP response. The surveillance video router according to claim 2, wherein a video session is started upon reception of a video session.   The surveillance video router of claim 2, wherein the processor further receives an additional request to route the first digital video stream to the additional video receiving device via the network interface.   The surveillance video router of claim 5, wherein the first video receiving device and the additional video receiving device are each coupled to the same logical destination port.   The processor further copies the first digital video stream from each of the logical source ports to each additional logical destination port for the additional video receiving device and routes the first digital video stream to the additional video receiving device. The surveillance video router according to claim 5. The processor further
Transcoding a first digital video stream, generating a transcoded digital video stream, routing the transcoded digital video stream to an additional video receiving device; and processing the first digital video stream The surveillance video router of claim 7, wherein the monitoring video router implements at least one of generating a processed digital video stream and routing the processed digital video stream to a first video receiving device.   The surveillance video router of claim 1, wherein the processor further routes the first digital video stream along with other digital video streams to the first video receiving device over an Internet Protocol (IP) tunnel. A method of routing a digital video stream captured by a remote monitoring camera to a video receiving device, comprising:
Receiving a request to route a first digital video stream generated by a first remote surveillance camera to a first video receiving device of a surveillance video router via a packet-switched network;
Receiving a first digital video stream from a first remote surveillance camera of a surveillance video router via a packet-switched network and routing the first digital video stream to a first video receiving device by the surveillance video router; Including the method.

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